SPECTATORS WATCHING Tibetan monks create an intricate sand mandala at the Asian Art Museum in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park were shocked on August 9 1991 when a woman protesting Buddhist death cults jumped a velvet rope and destroyed four weeks of meticulous work. The circular six-foot mandala, depicting the Kalachakra, or Wheel of Time, was part of an exhibition of Tibetan sacred art. The museum staff freaked out, grabbing the woman and holding her until security and the police. This seemed to surprise the monks who assured the museum that they would be happy to make another but that this one was scheduled to be taken apart in a dissolution ceremony, which symbolizes the Buddhist teaching of impermanence, in a week or so. Instead, the monks performed the ceremony, in which they scattered the sand at sea from the Golden Gate Bridge, two days after the incident. The woman, who claimed to have ties with the CIA, was taken to Mount Zion Hospital for observation. In a few sentences the SF Chronicle managed to spell out one of the fundamental differences between Eastern and Western thought. To the monks the mandala was a process, and event, whose value existed in its very impermanence. To the museum staff it was a thing, a valuable work art. Lobsang Samten, the leader of the sand painters, told reporters, We dont feel any negativity. We dont know how to judge her motivations. We pray for her with love and compassion.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:47:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015